[The firebell rings in the street. The stage is empty.]
IRINA [behind the screen]. Olya! Who is that knocking on the floor?
OLGA. It's the doctor, Ivan Romanitch. He's drunk.
IRINA. What a troubled night! [a pause] Olya! [Peeps out from behind the screen.] Have you heard? The brigade is going to be taken away; they are being transferred to some place very far off.
OLGA. That's only a rumour.
IRINA. Then we shall be alone, . . . Olya!
OLGA. Well?
IRINA. My dear, my darling, I respect the baron, I think highly of him, he's a fine man -- I'll marry him, I consent, only let's go to Moscow! I implore you, please let's go! There's nothing in the world better than Moscow! Let's go, Olya! Let's go!
CURTAIN. Act IV
Old garden of the PROZOROVS' house. A long avenue of fir trees, at the end of which is a view of the river. On the farther side of the river there is a wood. On the right the verandah of the house; on the table in it are bottles and glasses; evidently they have just been drinking champagne. It is twelve o'clock noon. People pass occasionally from the street across the garden to the river; five soldiers pass rapidly.
CHEBUTYKIN, in an affable mood, which persists throughout the act, is sitting in an easy chair in the garden, waiting to be summoned; he is wearing a military cap and has a stick. IRINA, KULYGIN with a decoration on his breast and with no moustache, and TUZENBAKH, standing on the verandah, are saying good-bye to FEDOTIK and RODE, who are going down the steps; both officers are in marching uniform.
TUZENBAKH [kissing FEDOTIK] . You're a good fellow; we've got on so happily together. [Kisses RODE.] Once more. . . . Good-bye, my dear boy. . . .
IRINA. Till we meet again!
FEDOTIK. No, it's good-bye for good; we'll never meet again.
KULYGIN. Who knows! [Wipes his eyes, smiles.] Here I am crying too.
IRINA. We'll meet some day.
FEDOTIK. In ten years, or fifteen perhaps? But then we shall scarcely recognise each other -- we'll greet each other coldly . . . [Takes a snapshot] Stand still. . . . Once more, for the last time.
RODE [embraces TUZENBAKH]. We'll never see each other again, . . . [Kisses IRINA'S hand.] Thank you for everything, everything. . . .
FEDOTIK [with vexation]. Oh, can't you stand still for a minute?
TUZENBAKH. Please God we shall meet again. Write to us. Be sure to write to us.
RODE [taking a long look at the garden] . Good-bye, trees! [Shouts] Halloo! [a pause] Good-bye, echo!
KULYGIN. I shouldn't wonder if you get married in Poland. . . . Your Polish wife will clasp you in her arms and call you kochany! [Laughs]
FEDOTIK [looking at his watch]. We have less than an hour. Of our battery only Solyony is going on the barge; we're going with the rank and file. Three divisions of the battery are going today and three more tomorrow -- and peace and quiet will descend upon the town.
TUZENBAKH. And dreadful boredom too.
RODE. And where is Marya Sergeyevna?
KULYGIN. Masha is in the garden.
FEDOTIK. We must say good-bye to her.
RODE. Good-bye. We better go, or I'll begin to cry . . . [Hurriedly embraces TUZENBAKH and KULYGIN and kisses IRINA'S hand.] We've had a splendid time here.
FEDOTIK [to KULYGIN]. This is a little souvenir for you . . . a note-book with a pencil. . . . We'll go down this way to the river . . . [As they go away both look back.]
RODE [shouts]. Halloo-oo!
KULYGIN [shouts]. Good-bye!
[RODE and FEDOTIK meet MASHA in the background and say good-bye to her; she walks away with them.]
IRINA. They've gone . . . [Sits down on the bottom step of the verandah.]
CHEBUTYKIN. They have forgotten to say good-bye to me.
IRINA.Well, what about you?
CHEBUTYKIN. Why, I somehow forget, too. But I'll see them again soon, I'm setting off tomorrow. Yes . . . I have one day more. In a year I shall be on the retired list. Then I'll come here again and I'll spend the rest of my life near you. . . . There's only one year now before I get my pension. [Puts a newspaper into his pocket and takes out another.] I'll come here to you and arrange my life quite differently. . . . I'll become such a quiet . . . hon. . . honorable . . . well-behaved person.
IRINA. Well, you do need to arrange your life differently, dear Ivan Romanitch. You certainly ought to somehow.
CHEBUTYKIN. Yes, that's the way I feel. [Softly hums] "Tarara-boom-dee-ay -- Tarara-boom-dee-ay."
KULYGIN. Ivan Romanitch is incorrigible! Incorrigible!
CHEBUTYKIN. You ought to take me in hand. Then I would reform.
IRINA. Fyodor has shaved off his moustache. I can't bear to look at him!
KULYGIN. Why, what's wrong?
CHEBUTYKIN. I might tell you what your face looks like now, but I better not.
KULYGIN. Well! It's the thing now, modus vivendi. Our headmaster is clean-shaven and now I'm second to him I've taken to shaving too. Nobody likes it, but I don't care. I'm content. With moustache or without moustache I'm equally content [sits down].
[In the background ANDREY is wheeling a baby asleep in a baby carriage.]
IRINA. Ivan Romanitch, darling, I'm dreadfully uneasy. You were on the boulevard yesterday, tell me what was it that happened?
CHEBUTYKIN. What happened? Nothing. Nothing much [reads the newspaper]. It doesn't matter!
KULYGIN. The story is that Solyony and the baron met yesterday on the boulevard near the theatre. . . .
TUZENBAKH. Oh, stop it! Really . . . [with a wave of his hand walks away into the house].
KULYGIN. Near the theatre. . . . Solyony began pestering the baron and he couldn't keep his temper and said something offensive, . . .
CHEBUTYKIN. I don't know. It's all nonsense.
KULYGIN. A teacher at a divinity school wrote "nonsense" at the bottom of an essay and the pupil puzzled over it thinking it was a Latin word . . . [laughs]. It was terribly funny . . . . . . . . They say Solyony is in love with Irina and hates the baron. . . . That's natural. Irina is a very nice girl.
[From the background behind the scenes, "Aa-oo! Halloo!"]
IRINA [shudders]. Everything frightens me somehow today [a pause]. All my things are ready, after dinner I'll send off my luggage. The baron and I are to be married tomorrow, tomorrow we go to the brick factory and the day after that I'll be in the school. A new life is beginning. God will help me! How will it fare with me? When I passed my exam as a teacher I felt so happy, so blissful, that I cried . . . [a pause]. The cart will soon be coming for my things. . . .
KULYGIN. That's all very well, but it does not seem serious. It's all nothing but ideas and very little that is serious. However, I wish you success with all my heart.
CHEBUTYKIN [moved to tenderness]. My good, delightful darling. . . . My heart of gold. . . .